Date:26/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/26/stories/2005052605620500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

They too can jump on IT bandwagon

Staff Reporter

Computer-aided education in about 600 schools for tribal students

BHADRACHALAM: Children in the tribal villages of Khammam are going to discover a world beyond them. The tribal schools are turning out to be a major attraction in the months to come, as computers will play a major role in addressing the classroom needs of students. Teaching with the aid of computer simulations will generate a great deal of excitement and liven up the traditional learning process.

The administration had embarked on an ambitious programme to introduce computer education to one lakh tribal children on the rolls of some 600 schools in the sub-plan area of Bhadrachalam with an outlay of Rs 1.5 crores.

Computer labs equipped with the latest education software and the basic infrastructure will come up in a month's time in as many as 50 school complexes.

Money well spent

After all, the computers will enhance the children's learning process. The expenditure will be worthwhile and rewarding, said the Collector, Rajendra Narendra Nimje on Tuesday.

He said the education software would be designed by top players like Microsoft, Gates Foundation and NIIT.

The service of the trainers would also be drafted from them. Effort was on for using the top class training tools in the exercise.

The training classes for instructors would commence within two weeks' time. The study material and syllabus would be designed keeping in view the needs of

20,000 tribal children (sixth to tenth standard) on the rolls of 72 tribal schools and 80,000 children in 520 other schools being covered in the first phase of the project.

Students from the targeted schools would be taken on field trips to computer labs, thus enabling them to share the facilities with other schools.

The institutions run by the NGOs in the tribal areas would also be motivated to introduce computer-aided learning.

The teachers working in the tribal schools would take over project implementation once their training is completed.

The computer-aided classrooms would certainly make a big difference. The students are introduced to a world of learning through simulations. It will make them part of the modern information society, enhance their confidence levels and help them come on par with the mainstream, hoped the Collector.